1. Technical Field
Embodiments described herein are related to the field of integrated circuits, and more particularly to a communication circuit to communicate between integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computing systems may include one or more systems-on-a-chip (SoCs), which may integrate a number of different functions, such as, application execution, graphics processing and audio processing, onto a single integrated circuit. With numerous functions included in a single integrated circuit, chip count may be kept low in mobile computing systems, such as tablets, for example, which may result in reduced assembly costs, and a smaller form factor for such mobile computing systems.
Various computing systems may include multiple voltage domains, i.e., different circuits powered by different power supplies which may have different power supply voltage levels and/or different common mode voltage levels (also commonly referred to as “ground reference,” “voltage grounds,”0 or simply “grounds”). In some systems, to communicate from an SoC or other type of integrated circuit (IC) in one voltage domain to an IC in another voltage domain, communication signals must pass through a level shifter, i.e., a circuit designed to convert signals from the first voltage domain into an equivalent signal in the other voltage domain. Some drawbacks of level shifters, in various embodiments, are consumption of additional power, taking space on a circuit board or IC, and adding delays to the signals being level shifted.